Kailash Yatra
Prof. J C Sharma
 Kailash yatra in
Bhadarwah starts every year in the month of Bhadu on
Dewadshi Thethi in Krishna Pakash i.e. in late days of
August or early days of September.
This year it is starting from village Gatha previously
named Ghoshta having the ancient temple of Sh. Vasuki Nag
Ji Maharaj.
The Yatries take the same path, which was taken by Shri
Vasuki Nag to reach Kailash Kund at the time when
Garoodhji had challenged him to fight, as Garoodhji
wanted to kill Shri Vasuki Nag Ji. Instead of fighting
Garoodh, Shri Vasuki Nag Ji ran away to avoid the fight
to keep Garoodh’s promise which he had made to his
mother Vaneeta. Both Garoodhji and Vasuk Nag Ji were the
sons of great Saint Maharishi Kashyap.
Kailash in Bhadarwah is called Kablas. It is a big lake
situated at a height of 14241 ft. from sea level.
It is beautiful, pure having ice cold clear fresh water
lake, surrounded by mountains and glaciers. It is the
most attractive religious holy spot where Lord Shiva
resided before Shri Vasuki Nag Ji as the permanent
occupant of the place.
The route of yatra is attractive and has its own natural
charms.
Yatra starts from village Gatha of tehsil Bhadarwah,
where there is the oldest temple of Shri Vasuki Nag Ji.
Yatra starts at about 9.00 a.m. in the morning with
beating of drums, blowing of flutes amidst the shouting
of religious slogans by the people.
First of all people worship the holy “mace”
with flowers, chanting mantras, shouting slogans and then
proceed on their way.
People from different surrounding villages come on road
side to worship and receive the holy mace with flowers,
rice, fruits and scents.
When yatra reaches at Nager some 2 Kms. away from Gatha.
Yatries wait for a short period for the mace of Nagar
temple .. . . .....more
Blocked sewerage and clogged drains
Dinesh Manhotra
 Not withstanding
tall claims of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC)
water logging and over-flowing of drains is still one of
the biggest problem being confronted by the inhabitants
of the lower areas of the city and outskirts.
Water logging in different lower areas of Jammu city is
result of the lack of coordination among different
government departments and casual approach being adopted
by the JMC.
While one department shifting blames on other, each wing
of different government department are not shouldering
their responsibility to solve this civic problem.
Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has deployed as many as
170 Safai Karamcharies to clear chocked drainage system,
yet over-flowing of water from drains is a problem in the
city. Not only in lower areas of Jammu but some parts of
walled city of also witnessed same problem every morning.
Although Jammu city has witnessed moderate down pour this
year, rain water was still found collected in lower area
due to choked drainage system. The city witnessed first
rain in the month of July this year. Like previous year,
first rain exposed tall claims of different department to
streamline drainage system in the city. Lower areas like
Dogra Chowk, Vinayak Bazar, Talab Tillo, Ware House,
Gandhi Nagar crossing, some areas of Subash Nagar, Kabir
Nagar area of Bhagwati Nagar, Risham Ghar Colony,
Krishana Nagar became water logged.
As drainage system was totally chocked in sthese areas
were turned into a ponds and people had to face lot of
hardship. “Making way through stagnated water is a
routine affair for us. Every year during rainy season, we
have to face this problem”, said Rajesh Kumar of
Chand Nagar while pointing towards water which was
gathered at Dogra Chowk. .....more
‘My support to Aamir became a
sensitive issue’
 From doing an item number in 'Phir
Hera Pheri' to playing a psychologist in 'Alag', the
sizzling Diya Mirza is on a roll... She has signed five
films in the past one month. Vickey Lalwani chats up the
beautiful actor
Your item number in 'Phir Hera Pheri' was the talk of the
town. How did it happen?
I got a call from Firoz Nadiadwala. He told me that he
wanted me to do an item number which would be the
introductory song. I was told to listen to it before I
gave my nod of consent. I was bowled over when I heard
it.
Which films are you looking forward to?
I have recently signed a film with Anant Mahadevan which
will be produced by T Series. I am also entering the
regional arena with a Bengali film produced by Raja
Mukerji (Rani's brother). I am quite excited about that.
My mother is a Bengali and I know the language, so it
will be fun. Besides, there is 'Munnabhai 2nd Innings',
"Honeymoon Tours And Travels Pvt Ltd" and
"Cash".
Apart from Anant's film, you have signed four more films
in the past one month?
Well, I have, I thought that I'll keep under wraps but
anyway. I have signed three films with White Feathers. I
always wanted to work with Sanjay Gupta. I think that I
am made for his kind of cinema, rather than the love
stories. He has real hard hitting lines in his films. I
am doing his 'Dus Kahaniyan', 'Shoot out at Lokhandwala'
and 'Alibag'. Then, I am doing Shyam Bajaj's 'Jai Veeru'
opposite Fardeen Khan and Kunal Khemu.. . . ......more
Tutorial shops are money-spinners
Geeta Kumria
 The latest decision
by the six Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to
admit only those students who score minimum 60 per cent
marks in their board examinations (class XII), and will
be allowed to sit for the qualifying examination twice,
has badly hit the tutorial bureaus in the country. Forget
for a while the entry test to technical institutions,
these teaching shops prepare students for all kinds of
competitive examinations. These bureaus have mushroomed
in every major Indian city. With the laissez-faire spirit
getting stronger by the day, education too is proving a
money-spinner for the enterprising.
Delhi alone, with the largest concentration of such
bureaus, has more than 500 teaching shops. Kolkata has
about 250 while smaller cities like Lucknow have about
90. Kota in Rajasthan enjoys the reputation of producing
the highest number of students who get admitted to
prestigious technical institutions in the country.
Each such institute enrols about 500 to 1000 students for
a yearly session, charge fees ranging from Rs. 40,000 to
Rs. 70,000 depending on the course.
The race for marks and degrees has unleashed a cut throat
competition among these bureaus, busy peddling education
in the form of packaged knowledge.
The teaching shops fall into two categories. One promises
school and college degrees to students not assimilated in
the mainstream education from lesser known universities.
The second category promises "sure and brilliant
success" to aspirants in competitive examinations
for the prestigious though limited jobs in civil,
defence, banking and medical sectors.
Delhi has surfeit of both. It has hundreds of
"coaching colleges" of dubious credentials
operating from backyards and small tenements. Their main
purpose is to secure school and college degrees for
unsuccessful students for a fee varying from Rs. 20,000
to Rs. 50,000. ........more
Cysticercocis
Maneka Gandhi
 Many years ago, my
husband and I had gone for dinner to a close friend.
There was another guest, a young girl of 18. While we sat
around the table talking, suddenly she shrieked and
fainted. We panicked and rang up her mother. The girl
woke after several minutes and asked us what we were
doing in her house. She had complete amnesia. After
getting up to drive us all away, she fainted again. By
then her mother came and she was taken home and the
doctor called. When I rang up her mother in the morning
she told me that the girl’s right arm was paralysed
for an hour and she had been taken for an MRI. A few days
later it was established that she had a cyst in her brain
caused by the pork tapeworm. For three years after that
she was on medication.
Three days ago, I read about Mohammed Hasseb in the
newspapers, a barber from Faizabad. He was admitted to
the Sion Hospital, Mumbai with severe headaches and
blurred vision. The doctors found 400 cysts in his skull.
Each cyst contained thousands of tapeworms and had to be
cut out carefully for if the liquid had leaked out, more
cysts would be formed, killing the person.
There are two kinds of tapeworm infections: those created
by the Echinococcus granulosus worms- as in Hasseb's case
and those caused by Taenia solium as in the tennis player
Leander Paes' case. Both are caused by eating meat.
Cysticercosis and Taeniasis are two kinds of infections
caused by Taenia solium, a tapeworm normally found in
meat of pigs . Though pork is the main carrier, you can
get infected from the meat of sheep and goats as well. A
recent WHO study showed that 10% of sheep slaughtered in
Delhi are infected with tapeworms and the percentage ......more
Off the beaten track
 Watertight
itineraries, buffet lunches, guides ever in a hurry-
these ubiquitous parts of packaged tours are being
shunned by a new breed of Indian traveller who opt for
adventures of their own, finds Ritusmita Biswas
At first I could see nothing. And then my eyes adjusted
as I realised with a gasp that I was finally under the
sea. The feeling was uncanny and I could see colourful
organisms and fishes all about me. A sudden gasp from the
woman next to me and I turned my gaze in the direction
she was looking. It was then I saw it eye to eye. Eyes as
mean and almost daring me to come out and face the
challenge. Of course, I was safe within my cage and
thankful for that. Even seeing a shark from such close
quarters would take a toll on my nerves, I thought, but
at the same time I was elated that it was such a welcome
break from the mundane holidays." : Shweta Pandey,
28, finance manager with a multinational company after
her trip to Hawaiian Island where she went shark
watching.
Calm holidays comprising romance and stargazing seem to
be passé for the regular traveller these days. They look
for thrill and unusual activities like underwater shark
watching during holidays.
In fact, a new kind of Indian traveller is coming up. He
hates packaged tours and buffet lunches. He is out on a
foreign land with just his backpack and is keen to enjoy
the adventure and exoticness of a foreign country.
Comfort for him is not the key word but adventure is.
"Yes, that's correct," says Shreoshi Moitra, a
leading travel agent. "These new travellers like to
check out everything by themselves. . .......more
Customer satisfaction in hospitals
Arun Sharma
 The hospital market
has today changed from a sellers' market to a buyers'
market, where the patient is all-important. Therefore to
achieve patient satisfaction, the hospital has to develop
itself technologically, as well as become more
service-oriented.
It is essential for a hospital to reach out to its
customers/Clients (patients), if it wants to survive the
competition. This can be achieved only by building a
bridge of trust between the hospital and the community,
so that the community can crossover to the hospital. One
needs to understand the fact that patients do not flock
to a hospital just because its services are cheap, but
because of its good name and good image.
Unlike customers of other service sectors who use the
services provided to them of their own free will, and
part with their money happily, the hospital customer is
forced to be a customer because of his illness and parts
with his money unhappily. The hospital therefore needs to
take this difference into account while dealing with
their patients.
The second differentiating factor is that the customer of
the hospital, unlike other industries, gets a close look
at all the rungs of the hospital. He gets a chance to
interact with practically everybody from the
receptionists, admission staff, doctors, nurses, ward
boys, ayahs, ambulance, personnel, billing staff, among
others.
A hospital's primary objectives are usually ......more
AIR POLLUTION
Ripu Daman Sharma
 The impact of man
upon the environment has existed ever since man himself
walked on the planet earth.
Now a days the impact of man on this planet has proved to
be detrimental on the environment. His mad rush towards
industrialization, urbanization and modernization has
contributed certain hazardous effects on our ecosystem.
The human population explosion has resulted in the
pollution of air, water and land along with povert and
misery. Some global issues of great concern have also
been originated from the same root, such as acid rains,
ozone laer depletion and global warming.
Population explosion is the biggest challenge, which our
country is facing as it has already crossed the limit as
compare. The bulk percentage of the population is
directly dependent on the natural resources for the basic
needs of food fuel, shelter and fodder’s, as our
number is growing our needs are also increasing,
resulting in the over exploitation of the natural
resources, the expense of which has produced certain
serious imbalance to the environment.
IMPLICATIONS OF
AIR POLLUTION:
Air is the life-supporting component, which has been
highly threatened due to human activities leading to its
degradation. The air born problem, with increasing
population density and industrial growth. It may arise
due to presence of solid particles, liquid droplets or
gases in the air in such concentrations, which can be
injurious to biolife in the environment. Man made sources
are the main causative agents behind environmental
degradation. Industrialization, urbanization and
technological advancements, while heading the nation on
the path of progress, have also induced many
physio-chemical changes in the quality of environment
resulting in its degradation, which is proving .
. ...more
Free will and fate are not two but
one
Lt Col R K Langar
 Free will and fate
are called two legs one walks on. They are also referred
as two wheels of a cart where both play their part in its
movement. Man is caught between free will and fate and it
would be fatal not to recognise one or the other. Free
will relates to our exercise of will while performing
actions in the present life whereas fate is the sum total
of the effect of past actions of our previous lives which
influence our present life. Exercise of free will in
relation to our past actions becomes our fate in the
present life as per the law of karma which states that
each one of us is an effect of which our past has been
the cause. Results of our past actions can be good which
made us happy in the present life whereas result of bad
action of the past can cause us suffering. In a broader
sense we can say that free will and fate are not two but
one as both are grounded on exercise of free will.
Even though fate or destiny plays some part in our
present life human life is not mathematically
predestined. Human beings are endowed with free will and
it should be employed righteously and purposefully for
our self evolution. That we have a free will is endorsed
by a single verse of Bhagavad Gita. At the end of His
discourse Lord Krishna tells Arjuna to reflect on what he
has said and act as he likes. If everything in life was
predestined then God would not have told Arjuna to act as
he thinks what is right. Fate or destiny is usually
described by an average mind as whatever has to happen
will happen and man can do nothing to change the course
of events which are destined for him as Fate. . . .., ...more
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